asc85
Many movies released in the 70's were way ahead of it's time, including films such as "A Clockwork Orange." I first saw this on HBO in the late 70's, and even then, the sexual frankness in "Carnal Knowledge" was way ahead of anything that had been out at that time. Perhaps if you're watching this for the first time in 2017, maybe it doesn't wear well over time. "Annie Hall" is my all-time favorite movie, and even I think that much of this movie is dated now (e.g., "Impeach Ronald Reagan" was considered a funny line at the time because he wasn't yet President, and only Governor of California).Yes, it's great seeing Ann Margret naked, but if that's all you're getting out of this film, you've really missed the point.
brefane
Despite it's subject matter, Carnal Knowledge directed by Mike Nichols from a script by cartoonist Jules Feiffer is a dud without a single likable or really interesting character. Nicholson's grating, Bergen lame and simpering, Ann-Margret more tiresome than the role calls for and non-actor Art Garfunkal keeps his head above water more or less. In support, a worn looking Rita Moreno has a good bit as a prostitute, Carol Kane cast for her freakish appearance says nothing and Cynthia O'Neal is repellently smug. Nichols' film is a series of cartoon panels with no sense of any life surrounding the characters. Nichols appears to have been influenced by the films of Bergman and Antonioni though he lacks their brilliance. The result is a dim view of human relationships that is unpleasant and pointless.
sddavis63
You can only watch a couple of guys (neither of whom, really, are all that likable) go through women for so long without it becoming a bit of a drag. But basically that's what "Carnal Knowledge" does with the viewer. We follow Jonathon and Sandy from their time as room-mates in university to somewhere in middle age and we watch their relationships with women begin, evolve and end. I frankly didn't see a lot of point to this. No one really grew or changed (except for Sandy, who started off as kind of shy and awkward with women and ended up not much more appealing than Jonathon.) The women in these guys lives were a little more interesting, if only because they each had different ways of handling their always troubled relationships with them.The male leads in this were Jack Nicholson as Jonathon and Art Garfunkel as Sandy. Nicholson was good. He was given a somewhat more complicated character to play than Garfunkel, which reflects the fact that he was a more experienced and more accomplished actor. But there was little growth in Jonathon, and that just made the movie seem repetitive. I did like Ann-Margret as Bobbie, who was Jonathon's primary relationship in the movie. She was believable in the role, frustrated in the relationship - loving Jonathon but also angry with Jonathon. She did well. Candice Bergen as Susan was Sandy's primary love interest, although she disappears partway through the movie, and aside from picking up that they split up we don't hear much about her.The performances are the strength of this movie. It's fairly tame by modern standards, although it likely raised some eyebrows back in 1971, and I found the basic story to be lacking anything that would keep me glued to the screen. (4/10)
apvalenti
The sixties were a time when nearly every boundary was tested. In the seventies we began to learn that boundaries don't necessarily restrict freedom but exist to provide elasticity which stretched too thin too fast can break. Carnal Knowledge follows two buddies through their college years and into middle age a period during which the sexual revolution swept many not into a new land of liberation but to a world of sexual dysfunction, misogyny, and oppression. Jack Nicholson is terrific as man who became a callous, self-centered product of the revolution. Art Garfunkel, in a stiff and uninteresting performance, is Nicholson's erudite buddy. Directed by Mike Nichols, the movie lacks the wit of "The Graduate" and Jules Feiffer's script is leaden without a hint of irony that could elevate the film from tolerable to entertaining. Carnal Knowledge is a curio of late sixties/early seventies film-making that captures, depressingly, the underside of the '60s sexual revolution. Perhaps a wittier, lighter touch would have made this a classic.
AD
